On May 10 -- while President George W. Bush, during his visit to the Pentagon, reacted with "deep disgust and disbelief" to new photos and video clips of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. guards -- radio host Rush Limbaugh continued to downplay the severity of the prison abuse; suggested it was "decent punishment"; and questioned the sincerity of the outrage expressed by Democrats, the media, and the public. Limbaugh also once again referred to a "new website that's supposedly chronicling" what he says -- apparently Media Matters for America -- and called it "a central clearinghouse for out-of-context quotes."

LIMBAUGH: Even this latest picture of a dog and a nude Iraqi -- you seen that one? A couple of Americans are holding -- it looks like German Shepherd, some kind of vicious big dogs, the dogs are barking, bow wow arf arf arf, this big dog -- you know and the Iraqi prisoner is cowering there in fear, he's all nude. And the picture caption "Dog attacks Iraqi." No, the dog isn't attacking anyone, the dog's on a leash. The dog is scaring an Iraqi prisoner. [gasp] "No! We're scaring them, too? Is that allowed in the Geneva Convention?! We're scaring then with dogs?" Yes, my friends we are. The dog didn't attack anybody. The dog's not attacking anybody. The dog's on a leash. Both of them are. I've seen the pictures. ...

[... about 35 minutes later ...]

LIMBAUGH: Apparently, ladies and gentleman, I need to offer a modification. Apparently, the pictures that are, the picture going around of the uh, the nude Iraqi prisoner cowering in fear of a couple of dogs. The caption to that picture that I've seen going around, uh, intimates that the dog was on the verge of attacking this guy, and he was very scared and so forth. In the picture that I saw the dogs were leashed and the correct caption would be "Nude Iraqi prisoner scared of dog but not attack [sic]." Apparently -- there's not a picture of it -- but apparently uh, well, there's another picture later where the nude Iraqi prisoner no longer cowering, um, in the corner against his cell, he's writhing on the floor with a pool of blood. Apparently, the dog did bite his leg, but there's no picture of that. I have just been, uh, informed of this. So I wanted to, uh, pass that on to make sure that the facts are out there. There's no picture of it, but that's apparently what uh, what happened. We were told there are going to be a lot of pictures coming in, and that they will be worse than what we've seen and this sort of thing. So, uh, sorry for the error. ...

Limbaugh on prisoners getting "a taste of [their] own medicine"

CALLER: When I saw those pictures -- the Iraqi supposedly torture pictures -- I felt no shame. The only thing I could think is, they're getting a little taste of their own medicine, and those Iraqi women must be cheering.

LIMBAUGH: Made that point last week, but it didn't go over well with Rush Monitors. I did -- that's -- made that point. That point has not been quoted. I said, you know, this might not be bad -- oh, it's gonna happen again -- I said, if you look at the role Iraq -- Arab men make their women play -- the roles they play, the roles they have to live -- to, to, to make American prison guards females and to give those women utter power over Arab men -- some might call that torture, some might call that decent punishment, some might say here's a taste of your own medicine. This is what you've been doing to your women for time immemorial, only now the tables are turned. But all that's been lost because [with a slight lisp] "This is horrible. This is, this is disgusting. This is outrageous. This is mean."

Limbaugh on Democrats and the media

I'm gonna submit here -- and I don't care who quotes me on this, and I don't care where they repeat it -- there's a lot of acting going on here, and there's a lot of false phony concern for these Iraqi detainees. This is not about people genuinely outraged about this. ...

The Democrats and the media don't give a rat's rear end about what happened to those prisoners. All this is, is the latest weapon they can use politically to harm Bush, which is why they're trying to harm me, in fact. It's all political. They don't give a hoot about those prisoners. ...

Limbaugh on sincerity of public outrage

How many of you went out to social occasions over the weekend and this subject, this story came up? And how many of you wanted to really say, "I don't see the big deal here. This is war. These are people who tried to kill Americans." But you didn't say it or some variation of that because you were afraid because you were with a bunch of people who were start yelling at you that you for being insensitive or coarse or crude or whatever, so you said what you thought you had to say in order to get along during a controversial situation if this conversation came up wherever you were. How many of you did that? How many of you did that? Admit it to yourself you don't have to raise your hands out there. I'm not, we're not counting hands out there. I want you to think about it because the fact of the matter is I think that's what most people are doing. I think most peo --that's where my optimism and faith in the people of this country remains steadfast. I don't think most people are that outraged by this. I don't thi -- let's put it this way, I don't think the public outrage nowhere near matches what we watched on television on Friday and yesterday exhibited by these holier than thou sanctimonious elected officials who are themselves acting and saying what they think you their voters want them to say and what you their voters expect to hear. ...

Folks, somebody asks what you think of this prisoner thing, just tell them the truth, and I guarantee you more people you tell the truth will say, "Yeah, I agree with you" than you know. ...

Limbaugh on Media Matters for America's monitoring

You know, isn't it interesting folks, I've been around here for fifteen and a half years. I've never been so often quoted on a single story. I think what happens is that the media has come across a new website that's supposedly chronicling what I say, and they all go there and they read it and they see and then they take the propaganda of that website and repackage it and call it news. And they leave the context of my remarks out. For example, nowhere where I've been quoted have I been quoted as saying that I think what happened there is not good. I don't support it, and I don't encourage more of it. I have not said that -- or I have said that, they've not quoted me on that. There's a number of things that they've left out, uh, most of it context. Uh, but it's just, it's amazing, all these years they could just tune in to my show and listen, but no, that's too tough. But now there's just a central clearinghouse for out-of-context quotes from this program. They can go there and present as news, even though it's just repackaged propaganda.

ABOUT OUR RESEARCH

Our research section features in-depth media analysis, original reports illustrating skewed or inadequate coverage of important issues, thorough debunking of conservative falsehoods that find their way into coverage and other special projects from Media Matters' research department.

The New York Times was forced to issue two corrections after relying on Capitol Hill anonymous sourcing for its flawed report on emails from former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The Clinton debacle is the latest example of why the media should be careful when relying on leaks from partisan congressional sources -- this is far from the first time journalists who did have been burned.

Several Fox News figures are attempting to shift partial blame onto Samuel DuBose for his own death at the hands of a Cincinnati police officer during a traffic stop, arguing DuBose should have cooperated with the officer's instructions if he wanted to avoid "danger."

Iowa radio host Steve Deace is frequently interviewed as a political analyst by mainstream media outlets like NPR, MSNBC, and The Hill when they need an insider's perspective on the GOP primary and Iowa political landscape. However, these outlets may not all be aware that Deace gained his insider status in conservative circles by broadcasting full-throated endorsements of extreme right-wing positions on his radio show and writing online columns filled with intolerant views that he never reveals during main stream media appearances.